


Cold Sky Blue

by Henna_Sully



Category: Loki (Marvel) - Fandom, Loki - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor 2 - Fandom
Genre: Again, Asgard, Asgard war with Svartalheim, Chapter 1, Cuddles, Dark Elves, F/M, Frigga Feels (Marvel), Frigga is a good mum, Heimdall's lost his toy, Hurt Loki (Marvel), Jotunn Loki (Marvel), Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, Loki is abandoned, Midgardian Witch, Odin (Marvel)'s A+ Parenting, Protective Loki (Marvel), Sleepy Kisses, Svartalheim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:13:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24562912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Henna_Sully/pseuds/Henna_Sully
Summary: Loki has been abandoned on Svartlheim after Asgard battled against the Dark Elves. All but one has given him up for lost, a MIdgardian witch. She needs to find him and bring him back, but at what cost?
Relationships: Frigga | Freyja & Loki (Marvel), Frigga | Freyja & Odin (Marvel), Loki & Odin (Marvel), Loki (Marvel)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	1. Left Behind

For eighteen evenings, now, Cynthia had gone to stand with Heimdall, waiting for him to find Loki. 

"Even if I do," he told her, "I can't bring him back, not without the sword."

His sword had been shattered when the Svartalfheim legion had tried to avenge Maleketh's death, some weeks ago now. Since that battle, no one had seen Loki. Most had given up on him, thinking he was either dead or, more popularly, had gone over to the enemy's side. Either way, he was lost.

\---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

There weren't many who knew about Cynthia's past as a witch on Midgard, and she had only recently confided in Heimdall. Brought to Asgard by Thor, who had thought to marry her, she had soon felt more for his brother. Frigga had begged for her permission to stay, and stay she did, as one of Frigga's household. "You know I'm a witch?" she had asked the Queen, after she'd been told she could stay.

"Of course" Frigga had told her, "I wouldn't have fought for you otherwise. I need people like you around me. These are dangerous times. People always underestimate Midgardians. Especially short, female ones. So you're an ideal soulmate, " she had smiled, gently, as she always did.

Cynthia found the Queen crying one day, seated at a window overlooking the lake. When on ceremony in the throne room, Frigga was always elegant, stoical, never betraying how she felt on matters of state. It would be easy to assume, from her usual composure, that she did not feel for her youngest son's fate. Cynthia had begun to wonder, herself. But here she was. Sobbing her heart out and gasping Loki's name.

"My Queen, please forgive me for interrupting you."

"It's fine, Cynthia, please, come and join me. I imagine you feel his absence, too," she continued, "If only we knew what had happened."

Cynthia nodded as she took a seat, "I think the imagination is worse than knowing. I try not to think at all. I try to keep busy. But in the evenings I still go to see Heimdall, in case he sees something."

The Queen looked at her, searching her face.

"No, my Queen, he hasn't. I would tell you, you'd be the first I told, I promise you."

"We would need to arrange an appropriate funeral," Frigga sniffed, looking into the sky, "Something befitting a Prince. Even without his body," she bit back tears, "We could send his sword, his armours-" she began to bend double, and Cynthia caught her, "anything of his, anything! We can honour anything of Loki's and send it all out on the pyre." Weeping uncontrollably now, Cynthia made her a bold promise,

"Your highness. Please." She held her and helped her be still. "Loki had begun to show me his sorcery I know another way to the other realms.

The Queen stared at her and Cynthia knew she had taken a huge risk; such travel was forbidden. But Frigga gave a resigned look, nodded and sat up to regain her dignity. "I'll act like I never heard that," she whispered. "But at the same time, you have my blessing."

\---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

This eighteenth evening, with Heimdall, the skies seemed different. If anything, greyer. 

"Is this an omen of some kind, Heimdall?" Cynthia feared the worst.

The Watchman smiled, "Not at all, young Lady, it only means changes. When it settles, I'll be able to see how, and where."

"Will you be able to see different things afterwards?"

Heimdall paused. "Not usually. Sometimes a magic to hide someone will fluctuate though. So..." he looked at her, his amber eyes sparkling, "If -and it's a big if, remember- if Loki has been hidden by sorcery, there is a possibility that that will fail after this."

"Sorcery..." she considered, and tried not to get excited, "That would indeed explain why he's been so hidden. Dark Elves, and Jotuns could do that..."

Heimdall managed a gentle smile and returned to his vigil.

Three more days passed. Then at daybreak one morning, Heimdall sent word to Cynthia. "COME IMMEDIATELY". She stole a mare from the Royal Stables and rode across Bifrost as fast as the poor thing could carry her.

"Heimdall! You've found him?" As she dismounted it hit her that maybe, maybe he only meant that he had found his body. 

Heimdall read her face and reassured her, "He's in Jotunheim, Miss, and he's weak, but he's alive."

She ran back to the horse. "Cynthia!" he called after her, "You CANNOT!" he had guessed her plan, and knew it was possible, given who her teacher had been, but- "You wouldn't survive the atmosphere, even if you got there safely." But she had already started her return across Bifrost.

From among the few she could trust, there was no one willing to accompany her to rescue Loki. Only one, who offered to find her a ship, but refused to take her there himself. He'd given her a brief outline of how to pilot it, then kissed her hand, and told her he would pray for her. He secretly suspected that they would only be prayers of remembrance.

As her ship approached the tiny gap in the hillside, her heart leapt into her throat. She could barely focus for the speed. "For you, Loki," she whispered, "If you can see me, help me. If I don't live, don't blame yourself. A death given while trying to find you again, is an honourable one, and I'll see you again." She turned the craft and it twisted through the narrow tunnel, bouncing off its sides. She was thrown about, desperately thrashing for something to anchor onto, terrified she would fall out.

The ship landed in Jotunheim with a bump that knocked her out. When she came to, she thought she had died for as her eyes cleared, and focused, she recognised a beautiful face. 

"My love," Loki whispered, "What are you doing here?"

"L.. Loki? I came to find you. I have to bring you back. I-" She looked him over, and saw his clothes were ripped, his skin was covered in thick, dried blood. His hair was patterned with bald, scratched patches, where someone -or something- had held it and pulled it out. She leant towards him to kiss his mouth, only then seeing his mouth was torn, his lower lip hanging at one end, crookedly healed over with one enormous scab. "What happened? Why can't you heal?" She began to shake and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her still. He brushed a cold, bruised hand against her cheek to stem her tears.

"SShhh my love," he whispered, as much to calm himself as her, for the cold had begun to affect her. She had already turned pale. He pulled away slightly, and held her face in his hands. "How long have you been lying here?" She did not know. Loki cursed at how little she was wearing. She obviously hadn't delayed for coats, shawls and blankets. Her fine skirts were no match for the land of ice.

Loki had stayed in his Jotun form since landing there, to preserve his own life against the cold. On seeing Cynthia, though, he had recreated the glamour of his Asgardian flesh so as not to frighten her. But he had no body heat to help her.

As she fell back into unconsciousness, he quickly covered her with what scraps of fabric he could find on the ship's floor, then took the controls, and turned the ship around.

\---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Loki half carried, half pulled Cynthia through the streets of Asgard. Himself weak, he fell in the middle of a market place, and crowds held back to see who they were. They were thought to be peasants, their clothes now looking so meagre, torn and stained. People turned away, swearing at having to climb over some disgusting obstacle in their way.

"Wait! Wait! Give them some room!" A stallholder bent down to see them more closely, "I don't care who or what they are, they need help. Don't any of you have a conscience?" She looked over the couple, and brushed dirt and dust from their faces. With Loki, she had no luck. Everything had stuck to his wounds. But she recognised some beads braided into Cynthia's hair. She cleared Cynthia's face, spitting onto the corner of her apron and wiping roughly over her till she found face of someone she recognised. 

"Cynthia! My god!" she knew her from when she'd bought perfumes from her stall, an errand she ran for the Queen. In which case, the woman thought, this other one, this man, must be....

"Help me with this one! It's the Prince! It's Prince Loki!"

The crowd broke into panic and noise and raised voices, as water was fetched for the casualties, and boards of wood made into improvised stretchers. More than enough people carried, accompanied and followed them, running through the streets to the Royal Palace. They were there in no time, and were rushed straight to the Healing Room.

\---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----


	2. Red Mortis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now in the Healing Room of Asgard's Palace, Loki and Cynthia lay unconscious. Frigga holds on to hope, without much support. The god, surely, would be the first to recover, if either of them do. But then, what will become of Cynthia?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is twice the length of the first but I couldn't find a natural split in this part of the story to make a third part!

Loki and Cynthia had been lying in the healing room, unconscious, for 4 days now. Frigga arrived for her nightly vigil, but this time, as she turned up the light, a slight tremor twitched the skin across Loki's forehead. As usual, she had brought some books; one of meditations to help her be calm, one of papers that she needed to study, and a third, a book of stories that she had read to Loki when he was a child.

She flicked through them, smiled at the latter, and slid the others under her chair for later.

"Well, my little Prince," she smiled at her sleeping son, "Where did we get to, last time? Ah yes; the elves were about to drink the magic potion, weren't they?" She cleared her throat and blinked hard.

As she read out the next part of the story, Loki, unknowing to her, began to smile. In his dreams were the elves, seated round a table of a tree trunk, their beards changing colour as they drank the magic potion. As they drank, they laughed and sang a song about a feast from their past,

"And then we went away to see," Frigga began to sing it,

"What trees could be

across the sea,

And then we saw

that there were more.." And Loki, quietly, smiling, joined in on the ending-

"-at home-

no neeeeed to roam!" 

Frigga stared. And stared. Loki? "LOKI!" She leapt to her feet, dropping the book with a loud thump to the floor as she half leant, half flung herself to his bed. "YOU'RE AWAKE! You're alive, by the Norns you've returned to me. Oh, Loki! LOKI!" She embraced him as she sobbed out her words into his shoulder. "I thought I'dtruly lost you this time." She sent a guard to tell Odin that Loki was awake.

"Mother?" He tried to sit up,

"It's ok, don't try to get up, lie down."Frigga urged him

"I've had enough lying down, I think, awppp.." he toppled over, dizzy,

"I think you better get well before you start getting the last word in, Mischief."

He smiled and lay back. Then a thought started to creep up on him. His heart racing, confused, he looked from side to side, breathing heavily,  
"Cyn..? Cynthia? Where...?"

"Shhhh it's ok, it's ok, she's here."

Loki searched the room, and his eyes finally fully focused, he found her, just next to him.

"What's wrong with her? Why is she still asleep? She doesn't look right. What's wrong with her?"

Odin appeared at the door.

"She's Midgardian. She doesn't have the stamina we do" He said, in scarcely a hidden mocking tone.

"Her witchcraft is keeping her strong," Frigga added, "So, her stamina will be more than in the usual Midgardian, at least."

Odin ignored her "I wouldn't worry too much, Loki. They have a time to live and a time to die the same as us, but it's a much shorter lease. They don't worry; they pack an awful lot into their short lives. I'm sure she'll have no regrets."

"No reg....wha?" Loki stared at his father. His own incredulity and rising anger gradually restoring some of his strength. "No regrets! About me, I suppose? No regrets for finding me?"

"Well," Odin raised his eyebrows, "If she hadn't left Thor for your advances, she'd never have developed such ridiculous feelings. You're too much for her short life to bear, and huh! She wouldn't be lying there now."

Loki's hand jolted for his dagger, only to find he was, of course, unarmed. Odin waved a hand and laughed as he left. "It's good that you are back home!" He called back, over his shoulder.

Frigga held Loki's arm to prevent him going after him, knowing he wouldn't make it. 

"You mustn't blame him, Loki, he has to be strong for the Kingdom, and that can mean blocking off his feelings."

Loki frowned towards the spot where he'd last seen Odin, scowling. "No, mother, there is no excusing him. And when I am well I will leave the Palace with Cynthia. He won't mock us any more."

Their thoughts, and their eyes, turned to the young woman still sleeping.

Loki pulled himself down from the bed, the floor seemingly further away than expected. Frigga stretched to help him as he stumbled but he stopped and raised a hand. "I can cope." he said. In line to the Throne, Frigga had no position, whereas Loki was second. Where motherly authority ended, her son was above her. She knew from his voice when to step back into that lesser role. Now was one of those times.

She took a place at the foot of Cynthia's bed. Loki stood looking at her, biting the inside of his cheek. Having made a decision, he turned to a guard and ordered, "Fetch the healers."

"Yes, my Lord," he replied. Then, as he turned, added, "My Lord, it's late, and some of them will be sleeping. Of the others, would I bring them all, or is there one you prefer?"

Loki turned and glared at him so hard, the guard stumbled backwards.

"Bring. Them. ALL. And wake up the ones that are sleeping."

The guard swallowed hard. It was rare in a soldier's life that he would have cause to speak to one of the Royal family, let alone in a manner that required eye contact. He left, running.

The healers, eight of them, stood around the bed as they each, or in pairs, inspected the patient, poking and prodding, waving hands and using their most honed tools of medicine and sorcery. Their conclusion was unanimous: it was hopeless.

As they left one by one, Frigga thanked them, keeping half an eye on her son, as he stared down at Cynthia's colourless face.

After they'd all gone, he said, "No hope? There is always hope. If you want it hard enough."

He called for help, despite Frigga's protestations, and had Cynthia carried to his chambers. As they all got closer toapproached its huge, double doors, guards rushed to open them, and servants and visitors whispered. The two were not married, not engaged, not related, yet he was having this unconscious young woman carried into his rooms? He stopped and stared at them all. Standing straight, and exaggerating his great height, he turned round slowly, with one finger raised towards them all in turn. "Do you. Not have. Anything else. To do?" They scattered.

Cynthia spent days sleeping in a bed by the sunniest window in Loki's chambers. Loki didn't know how to care for her. He had never had to nurse or look after anyone. Not even a pet. When an animal of his fell ill he had passed it on to the doctors to make well or put to sleep- he never knew which. He couldn't handle the sentiment of worrying over another's health, when clearly there was no way to make them well again. So pass them on. Put them out of your mind. If you don't they will needlessly fill up your mind and take important thinking room away from your studies. But- but this? 

"She looks particularly beautiful today, does she not?" Loki asked, without looking up as Frigga entered the room. "I do think so, mother. I haven't seen her eyes in a long time now, but it isn't hard to imagine them when her face is this fine."

Frigga smiled and assured him, in a whisper, "You are doing very well, Loki. I am proud of you."

Loki twitched. Compliments were never very easy to hear and made him fidget. 

"What's happening down there?" He nodded at the direction of noise from the jousting yard below. 

Frigga smiled, "Just some larking about. Nothing much. It was raining earlier and the sand's all lumpy, so they're playing something like bowling with it.... Loki? Shall I take a shift? It isn't good to spend every day in here."

"No. I don't want to leave her. I want to be here if - if she goes."

Frigga called in a nurse who had been hovering just outside the door. Loki raised his eyebrows but said nothing as she bowed to him and went to Cynthia. She lifted her covers slightly and felt her stomach. Her face soon betrayed fear. She rolled her slightly to look at her back, and gulped.

"What is it?" asked Loki.

"My Lord, it's a fever and she is turning red. I fear it could be the Red Mortis."

Loki pulled the covers off Cynthia and felt her. He felt her face, her neck, her arms, he patted along and down her nightshirt, her legs and feet. Sweat. Cold sweat. And now, she was wheezing.

"What now?" Loki asked, but already suspected the answer. Red Mortis was a rare disease, but could develop if someone had caught a certain parasite and been exposed to cold for some time afterwards. Not many of the Asgardians survived.

" Out. Get out!" The nurse scuttled away as he raised his voice. "YOU TOO MOTHER!"

"Loki, I.." Frigga tried,

"NO! You've all had your say. Now I'm going to try to do what's best for my best friend. I love her. If she dies, she dies with me. IN HERE. In MY arms. With NO ONE else. YOU HEAR?"

Frigga wasn't often afraid of her son, had only been so a handful of times before, but definitely felt a shudder this time. "As you wish, Loki. But remember I will always come if you call." She made the smallest nod of a bow and left, quietly.

Over the next few days, undisturbed, and, more importantly, unwitnessed, Loki changed into his Jotun form and lay alongside his beloved Cynthia. He spoke to her softly. He walked up and down his rooms, praying, sweetly calling on everyone in Valhalla he could name. He had Midgardian books brought from his library and read to her, holding them above her as he lay her across his lap. 

One night, when he had almost given up hope, he held his Jotun body close to hers, wrapping a silk sheet around them both so that, when he slept, it would hold him still close to her, and, even in sleep, her fever would have the benefit of his cool skin. That night, feeling more alone than ever, he lay whispering into her ear a little Shakespeare he remembered from his early years.

"O Gods, I have an ill-divining soul.

Methinks I see thee now, thou art so low

As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.

Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale."

For the first time, in many lifetimes, Loki began to cry. And once he started, he couldn't stop. Not just Cynthia, but all the loves he'd lost throughout centuries. He had long decided never to love another mortal, and warned Thor not to, as well. But from the first moment he laid eyes on her, he'd started to fall. His father was partly right; their lives were too short. Too fragile. This is what it will always lead to; lack of stamina. Incurable disease. Death, and heart wrenching grief.

As he sobbed, the tears rolled off him in tiny, frozen crystals. As he wept, his eyelids became swollen and bruised. He could barely breathe. He held her tight and rubbed his face into her hair, her neck, and then above her, to try to kiss her lips. But it was no good. So cold, so very cold. Jotuns were not made for tears. 

He hadn't seen- hadn't been able to see- his crystal tears falling into Cynthia's barely open mouth. A Jotun's tears are so rare, they do not carry salt, but instead, the enchanted dust of thousands of years of the great Jotunheim kingdom. -The only lasting legacy of that realm since the wars against the Frost Giants. Into Cynthia's mouth they fell. In there they melted. And through the inside of her cheeks, they entered her body.

As Loki sniffed back his tears, clearing his nose, breathing and gasping, and beginning to move away to find something with which to clear his face, he felt Cynthia twitch.

He stopped all movement. He looked down at her face and held himself so still he barely allowed himself to breathe.

She twitched again, more powerfully this time. Then again, longer, almost a spasm.

He carefully dared to sit up a little, holding her, bending across her. He whispered her name.

"Cynnnthia... Cynthia...." She moved her head. He leant back and watched, afraid to feel hope.

He stroked her face and called to her again, a little louder.

At last, he saw her eyes move beneath their lids. 

He was so enthralled, so relieved, so full of thanks and joy and wonder and relief, he quite forgot that he was in his blue, marked, hairless Jotun form. He realised it too late, he thought, as she opened her eyes and looked up at him.

Beginning to panic, too late to change or move away, all he could do was gabble away, "It's me. It's Loki. It's OK, it's Loki. Loki. You're ok, Cynthia, you're going to be ok. Can you hear me? It's Loki."

She stared up at him. "Yes. I hear you. I hear you." she smiled. She had instantly recognised his voice, -and also that he was scared. She said nervously, "It IS ok, Loki. I know about this, don't I? I know all about you! I think the blue is lovely. I haven't seen the sky in a long time. And the first thing I see is you, painted like the sky."

Loki cried a little more, gently this time, and smiled and smiled. "I've stayed with you every day. Every night, too. Did you hear me? Could you hear anything?

"Yes," she smiled up at him, as he slowly changed back into his Aesir appearance. "Yes, and I held onto your voice whenever I felt myself sinking."

Loki grinned.

"But...."

"But?" he worried-

"But I thought Romeo and Juliet was a bit much".

Loki sat up and faced the door, and made to call out something,

"No, not yet," smiled Cynthia, "Don't call the guard yet. We have a lot to catch up on" and for the first time since the battle months before, they kissed.

\---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this story. I'm sorry it got so wishy washy at the end. I wanted a happy ending so there had to be an embrace and a 'fade to black'!


End file.
